Detroit Lions general manager Brad Holmes is currently scheduled to have his end-of-season press conference on Thursday. Many Lions fans are eagerly anticipating this press conference after a frustrating end to the 2025 season. There is a palpable eagerness to see what Holmes will say about with some of the moves he did (and didn’t make) the past year for a season that failed to meet expectations in nearly every single way.
Here are the five things I’m hoping to learn from Holmes press conference.
So many offensive line questions
- When did you know about Frank Ragnow’s potential retirement?
- Was Tate Ratledge part of his replacement plan?
- Do you view center as still a primary need?
- Where is Giovanni Manu in his development?
- How are you planning for the inevitable retirements for Taylor Decker/Graham Glasgow in the near future?
- Do you think there needs to be more competition at guard to push Christian Mahogany/Miles Frazier?
I imagine offensive line will be a huge topic on Thursday, as that position group took the biggest step back in 2025. It will be interesting to see if Holmes believes he could’ve approached anything differently to avoid regression at one of the most important position groups.
But more importantly, it will be nice to have some insight into how Holmes will attempt to fix the position in the future. Is Manu part of the plan? What about Glasgow and Decker? Does he feel like Ratledge could be the future center or does he like him better at guard? There needs to be a clear plan here, and while I don’t expect Holmes to give away everything, some sort of vision would help ease some minds in Detroit.
Should he have done more at defensive end?
After Day 2 of the 2025 NFL Draft, Holmes was peppered with questions about the team failing to add an edge defender. Safe to say, he got pretty defensive about it.
“All I hear is, ‘Edge rusher, draft an edge rusher.’ Well, are you assuming that the guy is really good? Well, that’s a whole different story,” Holmes said at the time.
Later in training camp, coach Dan Campbell told 97.1 The Ticket “we’re good” at defensive end—in a quote about adding Za’Darius Smith that is commonly being misattributed to Holmes.
Flash forward to the end of the season and pass rush was certainly an issue in 2025. The Lions finished with the third-slowest time to pressure in the NFL (2.86). Will Holmes downplay that issue and, instead, point to their 49 sacks (fourth-most in the NFL) and Al-Quadin Muhammad’s season? Or will he admit the Lions should have taken the position more seriously?
Of course, more important than him taking accountability is his plan forward. As of right now, the following edge defenders are headed toward free agency:
- Marcus Davenport
- Al-Quadin Muhammad
- Josh Paschal
- Tyrus Wheat
Has his outlook changed on long-term project draft picks?
Holmes has taken a few swings on highly-developmental players, and none of them have really worked out. Hendon Hooker, Brodric Martin, Colby Sorsdal, and Giovanni Manu were considered extremely raw players—many coming from lower competition—that needed a ton of development to hit their potential. They’ve essentially gotten nothing from those picks, although you could argue Isaac TeSlaa falls into that category and the early returns are okay there.
Regardless, it will be interesting to see if his philosophy here has changed or evolved. In fact, a much simpler question for Holmes should be: Has your roster acquisition philosophy changed at all in the past few years?
Is safety a priority with two young players dealing with serious injuries?
The Lions are in a tricky position at safety moving forward. It’s unclear what the future holds for Kerby Joseph and his mysterious knee injury, while Brian Branch is in danger of missing the beginning of the season after tearing his Achilles last month. How does Holmes plan to prepare for the short and long-term at safety—a critical position in this defense?
With growing use of tight ends, do you think Detroit could use more long-term assurance there?
After injuries to Sam LaPorta and Brock Wright, the Lions were extremely short-handed at tight end and it showed. But beyond that, we’re starting to see the expansion of 12 and 13 personnel across the NFL, meaning some teams are three or four tight ends deep.
I’m curious if Holmes is considering following that trend, as it could be a big boost to Detroit’s struggling run game. The situation is even more complicated given that LaPorta is coming off back surgery and Wright is entering the final year of his contract—and dealing with a neck injury of his own.
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